Joe Bass

[Bill Babler]

What a magic day on the Rock. Beck and I have been having ourselves quite a run of late. Last four team events, we now have a 1st. 2nd. 3rd. 4th. place finish, not to mention Big Bass and Side Pots. It seems like things just kind of come together for us sometime during the day.

March for me has became a monster.

Started right off the bat on Sunday. Took us under 1/2 hr. to put a limit in the boat, thanks to being "Lucky Rather than Good."

Both of us struggled the previous 2 days, on both guide trips and Beck in the derby on Saturday. He was not the only one, as 4 fish won the silly deal.

Did kind of figure out a thing or two. First, they didn't want a stickbait. Second they did want a Jig.

The day before in the derby Beck had 3 small keeps he didn't even weigh in. But!! they deposited a load of bay crawfish in his livewell. Also a good Buddy thanks Denny had caught a limit on a jig and let me know. Thanks Denjac.

Suprise, Suprise, we started out with a jig, instead of the NO_BITTIN_STICKBAIT we had been wearing the paint off of.

Mostly used a 3/8 Chompers, or a bigger 5/8th. oz Pig Sticker Jig with the new Chompers Baby Craw Hawg. "Hey Guys and Gals." These tru-to-life trailers are $2.99 for 10 baits. G. Yamammoto can shove his 7 plus dollar traliers. The Chompers are BETTER, reguardless of price.

Fish were pretty much in the same places we had been throwing the stickbait, but wanted the jig. Had two Big fish right off the bat and in kept on commin.

You know it is your day, in March, when you see bass pushing shad, and we did. So did Denny. We had the jigs in hand and just threw them in front of the pushes. Fish we caught were big. Just the right place at the right time. I don't care who you are, you don't catch 5 bass weighing almost 27 pounds on a sunny day on the Rock, without some luck.

Fished 3 locations all day and made a milk run. They bit consistantly untill noon, and then it was over, but we had our poke of fish by then. Culled an additional limit of LM. Culled a limit of Jaw's and culled another limit of very nice K's. At one point right off the bat we had two complete hogs in the boat and Beck caught a 17 inch K. He said, "that one won't measure, and started to throw it back. I said, "Dude, you are trying to Cull at 2 and a half pounder, and it is our limit fish. He goes, "OOPS! after looking at 5's and 7's, these K's look like Babys." We got rid of it 30 minutes later. Should have let him throw her back.

Funny deal, we did leave one point that we had caught two 5 pounders on and another boat came in and caught a limit off the same point. Thankfully not as big. Looked like one of the guys was swimming a grub and the other was walking a jig down the stair step point. At that time, we had-em, so we figured we would just take our chances.

That was the biggest 5 fish bag either one of us has ever caught on the Rock in a combined 75 years of fishing this lake.

We have both caught bigger bags on Lake O. Beck and Kelly Power had 5 fish that weighed 33 pounds and I was guiding a couple of friends up there one day in the early 80's and we had 15 keepers that weighed 79 pounds and 14 oz. "Check this out." All on a BUZZBAIT.

Again, another fantastic day with one of my BESTEST Buddys.

[motoman]

What a magic day on the Rock. Beck and I have been having ourselves quite a run of late. Last four team events, we now have a 1st. 2nd. 3rd. 4th. place finish, not to mention Big Bass and Side Pots. It seems like things just kind of come together for us sometime during the day.

March for me has became a monster.

Started right off the bat on Sunday. Took us under 1/2 hr. to put a limit in the boat, thanks to being "Lucky Rather than Good."

Both of us struggled the previous 2 days, on both guide trips and Beck in the derby on Saturday. He was not the only one, as 4 fish won the silly deal.

Did kind of figure out a thing or two. First, they didn't want a stickbait. Second they did want a Jig.

The day before in the derby Beck had 3 small keeps he didn't even weigh in. But!! they deposited a load of bay crawfish in his livewell. Also a good Buddy thanks Denny had caught a limit on a jig and let me know. Thanks Denjac.

Suprise, Suprise, we started out with a jig, instead of the NO_BITTIN_STICKBAIT we had been wearing the paint off of.

Mostly used a 3/8 Chompers, or a bigger 5/8th. oz Pig Sticker Jig with the new Chompers Baby Craw Hawg. "Hey Guys and Gals." These tru-to-life trailers are $2.99 for 10 baits. G. Yamammoto can shove his 7 plus dollar traliers. The Chompers are BETTER, reguardless of price.

Fish were pretty much in the same places we had been throwing the stickbait, but wanted the jig. Had two Big fish right off the bat and in kept on commin.

You know it is your day, in March, when you see bass pushing shad, and we did. So did Denny. We had the jigs in hand and just threw them in front of the pushes. Fish we caught were big. Just the right place at the right time. I don't care who you are, you don't catch 5 bass weighing almost 27 pounds on a sunny day on the Rock, without some luck.

Fished 3 locations all day and made a milk run. They bit consistantly untill noon, and then it was over, but we had our poke of fish by then. Culled an additional limit of LM. Culled a limit of Jaw's and culled another limit of very nice K's. At one point right off the bat we had two complete hogs in the boat and Beck caught a 17 inch K. He said, "that one won't measure, and started to throw it back. I said, "Dude, you are trying to Cull at 2 and a half pounder, and it is our limit fish. He goes, "OOPS! after looking at 5's and 7's, these K's look like Babys." We got rid of it 30 minutes later. Should have let him throw her back.

Funny deal, we did leave one point that we had caught two 5 pounders on and another boat came in and caught a limit off the same point. Thankfully not as big. Looked like one of the guys was swimming a grub and the other was walking a jig down the stair step point. At that time, we had-em, so we figured we would just take our chances.

That was the biggest 5 fish bag either one of us has ever caught on the Rock in a combined 75 years of fishing this lake.

We have both caught bigger bags on Lake O. Beck and Kelly Power had 5 fish that weighed 33 pounds and I was guiding a couple of friends up there one day in the early 80's and we had 15 keepers that weighed 79 pounds and 14 oz. "Check this out." All on a BUZZBAIT.

Again, another fantastic day with one of my BESTEST Buddys.

-

Thanks for the details Bill, posts like this are a joy to read for those of us landlocked for a while! And Congrats!

[champ187xr6]

Congrats Bill and Bill heckuva a day.

[Chris King]

Congrats! That is a legendary bag for the Rock.

[magicwormman]

Congrats Bill and Bill!!!!! It couldn't happen to two better guides and guys. Thanks for the details, it will get a few of us pumped up. Not many of us have ever had a day like that, much less a tourney. GREAT JOB!!!!!!

[Donna G]

Good job, Mr. Bill! I take it you didn't toss the limit fish? Even if you had, sounds like there were plenty more to take its place.

All kidding aside, I'm proud for you guys. What an awesome bag. Me and the mister are planning to fish AIA April 2 on our 17th wedding anniversary. I'd be tickled pink to celebrate it with a few fish at the scales. Don't imagine we'll hit 26 plus lbs though.

[Whack'emGood]

Congrats Bills!

[CaptainJoe]

Nice job, guys.

[denjac]

Results. http://www.joebassteamtrail.com/?page_id=3743

[BrianS]

It took 20 lbs on Bull Shoals. BB was 7.5 lbs. The bite is getting better and better!